Tax hike but why no display ban?

I’m not against rising the excise on tobacco but everyone knows that if this government was serious about reducing the harm from tobacco this isn’t the best way to go about it.

Addicts have what an economist would call ‘inelastic’ demand for tobacco, it doesn’t go down much with price. A 10% increase in price causes just a 4% decrease in consumption according to one study. So bumping up the price 30% might decrease use by 12% but it does that by taking a whole lot more money out of the, mostly poor, tobacco using population.

It would be better to use proven methods of decreasing use that don’t involve taking more money off the poor. One is banning cigarette displays. It is well known that these displays have a strong effect in encouraging young people to start smoking and that the best way to reduce tobacco harm is for people not to start smoking in the first place.

But banning these displays is something that National, for its weird ideological reasons, won’t consider. Associate Health Minister with responsibility for tobacco harm reduction, Tariana Turia, once considered getting rid of the displays a priority. But she’s too busy reprinting her business cards with ‘Minister for Whanau Ora (don’t ask what it is)’ to worry about stuff like Maori dying of lung cancer any more.

I also don’t get why National had to take Parliament into Urgency (in fact, Extraordinary Urgency) once again.

If they had their act together, they could have easily passed the tax increase in a single day without the cost of going into Urgency. It looks like this was another product of National’s haphazard, last minute decision-making and poor House management (remember the other day when they wasted half an hour of their law-passing time on a debate on Steven Joyce’s academic record?).

So, yeah, sure out up the excise, but why not do more effective things that don’t hurt the poor? And why can’t National get its act together in the House?

Simon Power even quoted this on behalf of one smoker – “I work 60 to 70 hours a week on farms as a labourer, a shearer, a docker, a manager, etc. When I have finished my work at the day’s end and I want to go and have a beer and a cigarette at the â€˜Chelty’, no politically correct member of Parliament from Rotorua is going to tell me whether or not I can stand in my local tavern and have a cigarette, after a long week’s work.’

Well done Tigger. As Jim Anderton said in Parliament yesterday in regard to rise in tax for tobacco but not for alcohol, ” I can’t use the word beginning with H… but I can say Double Standards!” (Perhaps its National Double Standards?)

One point. Say smoking rates drop by half. How big is the hole in the revenue from lost excise taxes?

I think there is a problem with the taxes going into the consolidated fund. Any substantial drop in collection needs to be made up somewhere else. That would account for certain government actions, and non actions.

Can you not see any positives for maori from this? What about for other people who live in this country? It’s all bad? maybe it is in your mind but that is simply because labour didn’t do it – but they did vote for it BR – so what does that mean for your tight little worldview?

i prefer to address the issues that i want to address in the way that i want to address them rather than be told what I should do and how i should do it.

I am not defending anything but I am saying that increasing this tax is positive for maori and everyone else, and i am saying it was good to see most parties vote for it, and i am saying that i hope we can do more including getting rid of display ads for tobacco.

Are you honestly saying that you think the negative statistics that accure to maori across a wide range of measures is due to the gnat led government?

I’m saying that these statistics have worsened under the National/Maori Government and you support that government.

You don’t like National (you call them “gnats”) because you’re a sensible leftie and you know they are bad for Maori. Yet you seem determined to turn a blind eye to the fact that things are getting worse for Maori under a government that the Maori Party is part of.

This is not a success, Marty, it’s a whopping great fail. Putting the price up will have a temporary effect, as it has in the past, but then the addicts will simply adapt their budgets to cover the expense. And as a result, an even higher percentage of working class family budgets will go on tobacco.

If Turia gave a stiuff about Maori, she would have worked to ban advertising as well, as part of the path toward banning tobacco altogether. The prime reason National support this change is because it’s no change at all and their supporters in the tobacco industry will not be negatively affected.

Labour appear to have supported it because even a temporary drop in consumption is welcome, but they at least wanted to limit the peddling of fags in dairies and they did their best to convince Turia to put some guts into the legislation. But she was never going to rock the boat by advocating that obvious practical step.

All in all, another pipe dream from the deluded right wing leadership of the Maori party.

Concur TVOR – most alarmingly I found myself agreeing with Roger Douglas on this vote. It’s just a boot into the poor as it stands. Could have been a great law. Instead it’s just some pretty ribbons to go along with a flag and a Declaration.

“And as a result, an even higher percentage of working class family budgets will go on tobacco.” Only if you take it at face value. Actually a higher percentage of working class family budgets will go as tax, to the government. This looks like a tax grab, without even the decency of directing the extra tax to programs that reduce smoking, help people quit etc.

It’s so dispiriting when the Standard’s writers take a legitimate issue and then undermine the argument, by adding gratuitous insults. It happens too often on here, and it really doesn’t help the left’s cause.

Seriously guys, get some judgement. The little voice that says: “Good idea? Bad idea? Let’s think for a moment …”

It’s really not hard. Do you genuinely believe Turia doesn’t care about Maori (including her own family) dying? Honestly?

The point about advertising/displays is valid though. I doubt very much whether this law will affect smoking to a significant degree. My dad died from lung cancer. No matter how high the price of cigarettes got, he would have found a way to smoke. Turia might think she’s riding a righteous white horse here but I too question whether she wants to solve a problem or merely score a run on the board.

I mostly agree with what Marty has to say on this, however, the real concern is how Labour have missed the boat once again.

The very people you guys pretend to represent are the ones who are going to be most disadvantaged by this tax increase.

Now I know that Goff cannot be seen to be supporting smoking but the issue he should be attacking the gutless PM on is that this is nothing more than another tax hike, a tax hike from smile and wave Key who campaigned on “a series of ongoing tax cuts”.

Of course if Goff really had balls he would also be attacking this for what it really is, namely, another sop to the Apartheid party and a way of funding the racist whanau ora programme.

Why not announce a date on which tobacco sales will cease and allow addicts to register on the premise that they will have their tobacco supplied by the government for free or cheaply for either the rest of their lives or until they quit?

That wipes out smoking in a generation or so and doesn’t encourage a black market in the interim.

Not a bad idea. I’d still charge the smokers reasonable amounts though, but it’d go into a fenced-off fund which would cover (or at least partly cover) the ridiculously high cost of their end-of-life care and patches, gum, hypnosis (or whatever works) for those who want to quit.

But it is time we stopped mincing about and made tobacco illegal for anyone who isn’t a user at present.

Okay, but you have to guarantee to turn up your toes by a certain date, otherwise the Tobacco Users Eradication Sqaud will be round to… you know… help you meet you obligations 😀

As for your second suggestion, if they’re going to encourage smoking so as to reduce the pressure on superannuation then as a lifelong non smoker I do indeed object. I will expect equal subsidisation of my life-shortening vices… though I bet I can use up my quota of Pinot Noir and loose women quicker than you can get through your state-subsidised rollies 😛

The previous tax take on ciggies was estimated at $1.125 billion. The cost per year if every smoker required hospitalisation for smoking related illnesses is approximately $250 million.

There’s already a huge surplus, combine that with the majority of smokers not living past 70, there’s a massive economic benefit for NZ.

This increase will take the tax take up to approx $1.45 billion. As it’s done in increments, it will have a minor effect on the smoking numbers. We will still have 20% of the adult population smoking.

As armchair critic said above, it’s a tax grab. Approx it’ll pay for the $250 mill we borrow per week, for 1 week per year. Now all we need is another 51 of these types of tax grabs and we will no longer have to cut public service spending.

I think that the last time the question of shops cigarette displays came up, the lobby group reckoned that it would hurt businesses especially the corner dairy. Wouldn’t that be an indication that removing adverts/displays would have an effect?

“Are we heading to the point where baccy is more profitable for crims than dope?”

I suspect that we are, when I lived in the north east of Scotland it was common for each and every town to have its very own black market supplier, at that stage a packet of 20 cost around five pounds, what these guys did was hire a van, cross the channel (to Belgium usually) and load up with as much booze and fags as they could fit in the van.

Obviously they kept a low profile and were not easy to find but once they trusted you they would sell you a carton of cigs per week for anywhere between 25 and 30 pounds, hardly any smokers that I know purchased them from a retail outlet.

Some of them were previously cannabis dealers, however the more the UK govt increased the duty on cigs the more they looked into becoming black market suppliers of cigs, they worked out that the profit margins on cigs were almost the same as on cannabis and they have almost zero chance of ever going to prison if caught.

I don’t think we’ll get large scale illegal imports. Product is too bulky, it’s hard to access from overseas in quantity, has low relative value meaning the cost/benefit of imports is low compared to the risk of losses if consignments are intercepted, and it is competing against widely available legal supplies.

Geoffrey Palmer commenting on his (the Law Commission’s) review of Alcohol laws said on Morning Report yesterday that of all its recommendations, hiking the price of alcohol would have the biggest effect on reducing consumption – and of course increasing the duty on alcohol was the first thing the Govt. rejected doing.

I’ve no doubt the same would apply to tobacco – I don’t give a damn as I don’t smoke – and here the Govt. went into extreme urgency to wallop the price up to reduce consumption.

No doubt there is fecund ground here for all kinds of conspiracy theorising. To me it’s just a Govt. that has no idea beyond taking the easiest course from moment to moment like piss down a wall.

National are back to their old tricks: back in the 1990s when they went into coalition with Winston he wanted free doctors for kids. ISTR the caost was $300M. Where oh where to get the funds? A tobacco tax hike that raised revenue $300M.

It was only Labour/Alliance that brought in free addiction treatment. National just hiked the price up that addicts had to pay.

I guess these tobacco companies have never seen the exceptionally high quality counterfeiting that goes on around the world, where you can only tell that a counterfeit gucci bag isn’t a gucci bag because the colour of the stitching is just slightly off.

Yes, having plain packaging will make it easier for new entrants into the market, but the problem is not from small outfits that can only manage to mimic basic packaging, but the massive organisations that already copy the ‘complex’ packaging.

Several months ago there was a chinese company shutdown for counterfeiting Cisco products I believe. They had several buildings, their own factory and 37 staff doing customer services for their products.

Regarding urgency, this was an increase in excise tax. Excise is usually paid by the importer or manufacturer upon import or exit of the product from a bonded storage, it’s not directly levied on the consumer price.

So the aim of urgency was probably not to prevent consumers stocking up, but to prevent the tobacco companies emptying their warehouses and potentially getting a windfall gain by putting up prices on large amounts of old stock. The price for the stuff already in shops should not be affected by the tax changes.

Good question. Maybe it’s just a tradeoff issue that they can control the potential gain one time but it’s not worth bothering about over time. They often give warning on fuel and alcohol too. Logistics prevents too much gaming.

Urgency (especially extraordinary, don’t even bother to debate it, urgency) should be reserved for genuine crises, like wars, natural disasters and economic crises where law must really be changed urgently.

I have no desire for cheap fags, but the government could have proposed this measure any time in the last year and a half. They could have put it in the last Budget. That way it could have gone through democratic process in the usual way and still be in force today.

Do the Maori Party realise that if Key wanted, he could pass a law in this way abolishing the Maori seats? Rodney would be right behind it, and that gives them a majority.

The hike in tobacco excise is simply a revenue grab. There is nothing redeeming about it. It is unlikely to achieve its aim of significantly reducing smoking. Why does it suck?

1. Excise is a regressive tax (impacts more heavily on the poor)

2. Tobacco (read nicotine) for a majority of smokers is not a rational choice (the substitution effect therefore is not relevant, most smokers will adjust their budgets accordingly, leaving low income families with less disposable income.

3. The government is taking advantage of drug addicts (when it should be helping them break their addiction – can you imagine a government legalising prescription metamphetamine for addicts and having a tax on it?)

4. The government becomes further dependent on tobacco excise revenue (however, I do not suggest lowering cigarette excise. Simple annual increases to keep up with inflation should be sufficient.)

At a time when governments were giving free syringes to heroin and free condoms to children, the â€˜quit-or-die’ approach to tobacco raised ethical questions, and was only possible by an almost evangelical faith in the smokefree world to come. Total abstinence had previously been seen as a pipe-dream, but as the anti-smoking movement gathered pace in the 1970s, activists and governments came to believe it was possible within a generation. This was in-keeping with earlier reform movements, which invariably set their eyes on prohibition sooner or later. Just as the American temperance movement set out with a message of moderation and ended with complete prohibition, so the Anti-Cigarette League of the early 20th century went from a campaign that solely targeted â€˜coffin nails’ to fighting cigars, pipes and chewing tobacco (which were the â€˜less hazardous’ alternatives of its day). The Anti-Cigarette League’s absolutist slogan â€˜A Smokeless America by 1925′ bears an uncanny resemblance to the Surgeon General’s equally ambitious of 1986: â€˜A Smoke-Free America by 2000 AD’. Both serve as reminders that bringing about total abstinence is easier said than done.

Four decades later, the â€˜quit or die’ approach survives. Its political legacy can be seen in Britain’s ban on Skoal Bandits in the 1980s and Australia and Canada’s recent ban on e-cigarettes. It can be seen in Finland’s pledge to ban any safer tobacco product that might appear in the future. It can be seen in the ban on snus that is enforced in every EU country bar Sweden. Its impact on the health of populations, however, can only be seen by comparing Sweden’s significantly lower smoking rate and lung cancer rate to its EU neighbours.

In summary, modern anti-smoking activists oppose tobacco harm reduction because, like earlier reformers, they tend to be idealists. Even those who set out as pragmatists are liable to becoming more zealous once they become emerged in a worthy cause. Few activist groups of any hue avoid â€˜mission creep’ for long. For the anti-smoking movement, the allure of prohibition – the only logical conclusion to its cause – could not be long resisted. To the anti-tobacco campaigner, the appearance of new tobacco products, even if demonstrably safer, innately feels like a step backwards. Their prohibition, on the other hand, feels perfectly natural and, since most alternative nicotine devices are niche products with relatively few users, they can be nipped in the bud with minimal resistance.

Interesting piece, thanks, and yeah, making safer tobacco products available to smokers really should be part of dealing with the health issues of smoking, especially when there’s clear advantage to do so.

Also, I don’t really mind so much people smoking as long as I, and other non-smokers don’t have to breath it in, and as far as the health issues go, I’m okay with the public costs being added onto the price of tobacco products.

Oh simply end public sale – and have Pharmac buy the smokes off the suppliers and distribute them through chemists (in plain cartons) on a prescription tagged to a ration card. That ends advertising here.

Only those (over 18) registered as addicts in 2010 ever being able to obtain and continue to use these ration cards.

FEarlier versions of this essay were published by Radio New Zealand and Australian Outlook. The terrorist attack on two Christchurch mosques, which resulted in the deaths of fifty people and injuries to dozens of others, is a watershed moment in ...

I thought it might be interesting to write about one of our neighbours who this Saturday will be having an election with transport being one of the major battlegrounds. The neighbour is New South Wales and polls have the race ...

by Tim Leadbeater I’ve just spent two hours wading through Brenton Tarrant’s hate filled 174 page manifesto ‘The Great Replacement’. It is a sickening experience. I would not hesitate to recommend reading it: we owe it to the victims to ...

by Daphna Whitmore There has been fulsome praise of prime minister Jacinda Ardern for her handling of the Mosque massacre. Her sympathetic demeanour resonated with many people and she was no doubt moved by the atrocity. Any other response would ...

After the terrible atrocities of March 15 we are, inevitably, going to get some kind of reform to our gun laws. It's very likely some classes of weapons will be subject to new restrictions, while other will be banned. Whatever ...

A haunting weight. It presses down with dizzying effect, defying easy description. Its surface etched with the familiar language of human loss, heavy with regreat and shame. But some rocks we must carry.read more ...

The SIS, in an effort to claim that Friday's terrorist attack which killed fifty people wasn't a failure on their part, is saying they had their eye on far-right extremists. It's an extraordinary claim, in contradiction to everything we know ...

When, in 1962, as a 23 year-old, I boarded the Northern Star to sail to Britain where I was to study as a Rhodes Scholar for a post-graduate law degree at Balliol College, Oxford, I took with me an LP ...

Parliament met for the first time today since Friday's act of terrorism, with an abbreviated timetable for a condolence motion. It opened with a procession of a dozen religious leaders of different faiths. Parliament's normal christian-centric opening prayer was preceded ...

I usually disagree with Mike Hosking because I do not share his fundamental social attitudes and beliefs. But, as to what he had to say in today’s Herald about the Christchurch massacre, I recognise that his motivations, in warning against ...

One of the obvious questions which immediately arose after Friday's act of terrorism was why our extremely well-budgeted spy agencies didn't stop it from happening. The fact that it happened, and 50 people were killed, represents a huge failure on ...

If the cycleways have been feeling a bit busier than usual of late, you’re not imagining things. The latest numbers are out and confirm Auckland’s bike lanes are booming, with many counters in February recording their busiest month ever, despite ...

This is the new Basic rebuttal to the myth 'Holistic Management can reverse Climate Change'. There's also an Advanced rebuttal. The Myth: Holistic Management can reverse Climate Change “Holistic management as a planned grazing strategy is able to reverse desertification and ...

by Daphna Whitmore Not a single person has spoken in favour of the gunman who carried out the horrific massacre in Christchurch, yet there is talk of cracking down on free speech, and mostly it is coming from the ...

I was expecting to spend today blogging about climate change, building on the enormous message of hope sent by the school strike on Friday. Instead, like everyone else, I'm struggling to deal with the aftermath of a horrific act of ...

Wajahat Khan becomes a New Zealand citizen tomorrow. On Saturday, before leading the opening prayer at the vigil in Aotea Square, he told the thousands who had gathered there how happy and proud he was at the prospect.The fact that ...

James Robb on The Christchurch atrocity and the need for a class political response Today we mourn with our Muslim brothers and sisters all those killed and injured in the Christchurch terror attack, and send our solidarity and condolences to ...

Story of the Week... Editorial of the Week... El Niño/La Niña Update... Toon of the Week... SkS in the News... Reports of Note... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... ...

The North Shore Line, The Northern Line, Te Raki Tereina… NZTA in a recently released report showed that there is some urgency in starting work to replace the Northern Busway with a higher capacity rail system on a new crossing. ...

Our Darkest Day: New Zealand has been horribly scarred by a fanatical follower of the international white supremacist movement. He hid among us in plain sight, masking his murderous intentions from his Dunedin neighbours, the Police, the SIS and the ...

A Give a Little Fund was set up on 15 March 2019 and in just two days over $3 million has been donated. Donations can be made here. There has been an outpouring of demonstrations taking place around the country ...

The immediate response of most Kiwis to the Christchurch slaughter will have been shock and incredulity. But as the full dimensions and implications of the outrage become clearer, we need to reach a longer-term understanding. Yes, it is unthinkable that ...

The killing of forty-nine people in Christchurch was an act of terror, allegedly committed by at least one individual motivated by white-supremacist ideology. We know this, as our Prime Minister already has publicly called this evil by its true name. read ...

I wrote some explainers on this site about New Zealand’s Terrorism Suppression Act following the Uruwera Raids. I won't link to them as they are somewhat out of date. While still largely accurate for their descriptions of the offences of ...

As we wake up the day after 49 people were murdered at two mosques in Christchurch, it's to a flurry of comments about how New Zealand will never be the same, has lost its innocence and is no longer beyond ...

Every weekend we dig into the archives. This post by Matt was originally published in June 2016. Takapuna is considered one of Auckland’s key metropolitan centres – which the Auckland Plan describes as: Metropolitan centres, such as Takapuna and Manukau, will ...

The massacre of at least 49 people – in and just outside two mosques in Christchurch- this afternoon (Friday, March 15) is a horror that has shocked much of the country. People are saying ‘not here’. Ok, that’s understandable. However we ...

By Simon Connell and Colin Gavaghan, Otago Faculty of LawCattle rustling. To many of us city slicker types, it sounds like a throwback to a by-gone time. Maybe old Western films on a Saturday morning. read more ...

After the report of the Prime Minister's Chief Science Advisor put to rest the disastrous and costly moral panic around supposed "methamphetamine contamination" nearly a year ago, the industry that had grown around unfounded claims about meth residues and health ...

Massey University, the Tertiary Education Union, and Women@Massey hosted a morning tea on 8 March to celebrate International Women’s Day and launch the updated report on pay and employment equity at the University. ...

Sharn Riggs, national secretary of the Tertiary Education Union, considers what the government’s proposed reform of vocational education means for work and emphasises the need for high-quality permanent jobs. ...

What Are You trying To Say? The contrast between Helen Clark’s stewardship of New Zealand foreign policy and Jacinda Ardern’s is stark. Ardern’s generation, raised in the shadow of Rogernomics, has never evinced the same strong interest in international issues ...

Purposeful Renegade: As an economics student, not only was Kate Raworth (above) never told the ultimate purpose of economics, but also, she told Kathryn Ryan on RNZ's Nine To Noon, she and her fellow students were never encouraged to ask.KATE ...

Thousands of schoolkids around New Zealand have walked out of class today in a school strike for the climate. They're part of a global movement, sparked by Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg, which is sacrificing a day of education to demand ...

Today, children are striking, and demanding of us, “If you won’t act like adults, we will.” Their letter says poignantly: Soon we will inherit the consequences of this inaction, and we are scared. Will we have a planet worth passing ...

Towards the end of the Soviet Union, intelligence analysts in the US began to focus more on its social geography and less on its military capabilities (which if formidable were not keeping pace with US technological advancements). This came about ...

Without Power: The Venezuelan Government is under no illusions concerning those responsible for the energy blackout currently afflicting its citizens. President Nicolas Maduro has declared his country to be the victim of a cyber-attack initiated and overseen by the US ...

The State Services Commission released its six-monthly OIA statistics yesterday, reporting basic information on volume and timeliness (but nothing on outcome or quality of response). But while the official press release crows about improved timeliness, there's a twist:As signalled late ...

Over the coming decades Auckland’s budding rapid transit network is expected to grow significantly, approximately tripling in size from what it is today. While a decent proportion of will be new and extended busways, new rail lines will also be ...

Still winter nights without rain clouds are usually followed by a frost. The clouds reflect back the heat coming off the earth maintaining higher ambient temperatures, thereby reducing the risk of frost.read more ...

A decade ago, the public fought a battle with Meridian Energy over the Mokihinui hydro scheme - a plan to build a dam on conservation land, flooding a scenic river gorge. Now the area has been protected forever by addign ...

Tax Working Group head, Michael Cullen, asserts that the capital gains tax (CGT) is best described as a “tax on capital income”. Since when have capital gains been income? Show me any country’s national income accounts that include them in ...

A couple of developments in the past week or so have cast a fresh light on a familiar question – should we be worried about the possibility that agents of foreign governments can buy influence in our politics and government? ...

Last year, the government announced that they would hold an inquiry into Operation Burnham, the SAS operation in which six Afghan civilians were killed, including a child. But now, it looks as if the "inquiry" is instead becoming a British-style ...

So, having rejected Theresa May's shit Brexit deal, UK MP's were told to vote until they got it right - and rejected it again. Which means that the UK is now just 16 days from Brexit and has no plan ...

This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bud Ward Wally Broecker, photographed around 2010 (Credit: Bruce Gilbert, via Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory) The climate science community has lost one of the real titans of its field. Geochemist Wallace Broecker – ...

. . A recent bold statement from current National Party leader, Simon Bridges, declared his intentions should a capital gains tax (CGT) be enacted; . . “…No ifs, no buts, no caveats, I will repeal this CGT as Prime Minister ...

In a Westminster-style, parliamentary democracy such as ours – and one that, despite MMP, remains essentially a two-party contest – it is inevitable that many of us will choose a side and then see nothing but good in our preferred ...

This is a guest post by Glenn Koorey from ViaStrada. Do you know how many fatal or injury road crashes there were in 2018? No, neither did I, until I looked it up. Turns out there were 11,433 injury crashes, ...

On its face, today's news that the Police have referred Jami-Lee Ross' now-five-month old allegations about Simon Bridges, the National Party and $100,000 in donations to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) looks like a very big deal.read more ...

by Daphna Whitmore The public have an opportunity to make submissions on gender identity being included in the Human Rights Act. The campaigning group Speak Up For Women are encouraging people to submit. The Ministry of Justice have opened ...

Share this:

Related

The Governments of Australia and New Zealand have announced the membership of the Australia and New Zealand Electronic Invoicing Board (ANZEIB) today. This is an important step towards implementing e-Invoicing across both countries to help businesses save time and money ...

Workers who are paying too much tax because of incorrect secondary tax codes are in line for relief with the passage of legislation through Parliament late last night. The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2018-19, Modernising Tax Administration, and Remedial Matters) ...

Efforts to reverse the decline in the Chatham Islands pāua fishery are the focus of a new plan jointly agreed between government, the local community and industry. Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash says the plan was developed by the PauaMAC4 Industry ...

The Police will get stronger powers of search and seizure to crackdown on synthetic drugs under new legislation, which makes the two main synthetics (5F-ADB and AMB-FUBINACA) Class A drugs. The Government has today introduced the Misuse of Drugs Amendment ...

Further steps to combat tax evasion Revenue Minister Stuart Nash has announced New Zealand is expanding its global ability to combat tax evasion by joining forces with authorities in 30 countries and jurisdictions. Cabinet has agreed to add another ...

The New Zealand Bar Association welcomes the Government’s ban on assault rifles today. NZBA’s council member, Josh McBride, says that immediate changes to the underlying legislation are now required to ensure that all military specification ...

The New Zealand Bar Association welcomes the Government’s ban on assault rifles today. NZBA’s council member, Josh McBride, says that immediate changes to the underlying legislation are now required to ensure that all military specification ...

We are delighted for Helen Clark to become Patron of the new independent think tank with University of Auckland called “The Helen Clark Foundation.” The Helen Clark Foundation is a new organisation and needs your support to grow. Helen Clark ...

While last Friday’s terrorist attack in Christchurch was the first for New Zealand, Afghanistan’s ambassador to Australia and non-resident to New Zealand says his country has been victims of violence and terrorism for more than four decades. ...

"This will not be popular among some of our members but after a week of intense debate and careful consideration by our elected representatives and staff, we believe this is the only practicable solution," Feds Rural Security spokesperson Miles ...

That the accused was able to inflict so much harm in such a short time as a licensed firearm user with an easily modified semi-automatic rifle is deeply troubling and must be kept in mind as we discuss as a ...

A vigil has been organised by a coalition of community groups led by Muslims, tangata whenua and migrants standing in firm solidarity with Aotearoa’s Muslim community, following the violent white supremacist terrorist attack targeting two Christchurch ...

Auckland Council has turned topsy-turvy with its vote to approve a $63 million bailout for Eden Park, including a $10 million no-strings-attached grant, says the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance . Ratepayers’ Alliance spokesperson Jo Holmes says, “Councillors ...

After the deaths of fifty people who were in the Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre at prayer on Friday, the Methodist church joins in the grief of those who bear these losses directly, and in the public grief ...

In the March edition of The Fringe Magazine Waitakere Ranges Local Board chairman Greg Presland has shared his views on the imminent lodging of the resource consent for the proposed new Huia Water Treatment Plant in Waima, Titirangi. “It is ...

Primary teachers and principals will now vote in online ballots about whether to accept the Ministry's latest collective agreement offers, following the cancellation of this week's paid union meetings. ...

In school, we all learnt the phrase, "Beware the Ides of March" courtesy of Shakespeare's play, Julius Caesar. The soothsayer's warning to Caesar was brushed aside and Caesar assassinated a little later in the day. For the last nearly 420 ...

A censorious and censoring attitude has engulfed responses to the mental airings of the Christchurch shooter. Material in connection with Brenton Tarrant, the alleged gunman behind the killing of 50 individuals at two mosques in New Zealand, is drying ...

The Chair of Skills Active Aotearoa, the ITO for sport, exercise, recreation and the performing arts, has described the one-week extension for submissions on the Reform of Vocational Education as “paltry”. ...

As people process the attack at two mosques in Christchurch, our Muslim whānau are hurting. But there is an outpouring of love and unity coming from across New Zealand and around the world. Thousands of people have shared messages of ...

The New Zealand Maori Council is calling on Maori from right across the nation to come out this Friday in a national show of support for the whanau and victims of last week’s terrorist attacks in Christchurch. ...

Secretary to the Treasury Gabriel Makhlouf spoke to the New Zealand India Trade Alliance in Auckland last evening on the New Zealand-India economic relationship and where the Treasury sees the opportunities and obstacles between the two countries. The ...

“The conversation New Zealand is now having regarding the use of military-style semi-automatic firearms (MSSA’s) is important and the Game Animal Council wishes to clarify several aspects in relation to their use for hunting game animals,” ...

As leaders of Abrahamic faith communities we come together to offer our deepest and most heartfelt condolences to all those who have been victimised and traumatised by this evil attack on our Muslim community in Christchurch. For all of us, ...

ACC wishes to clarify that the supports and entitlements available for family members of those killed in Friday’s terrorist attack in Christchurch is the same regardless of whether they live in New Zealand or overseas. A funeral grant, a survivor’s ...

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) extends its deepest sympathies to the victims of the massacre in Christchurch, New Zealand. We urge all the governments and the people of the world to support New Zealand’s efforts to deal with the ...

Vodafone, Spark, Vocus and 2degrees are warning all customers to be cautious of scammers looking to take advantage of Kiwi generosity and benefit from the Christchurch terror attack through fraudulent donations. ...

Fifty people died in the shooting and 31 people remain in hospital. Writing on RNZ , Anjum Rahman from the Islamic Women’s Council of New Zealand detailed repeated attempts to lobby Government to stem discrimination against their community. ...

The National Church Leaders gathered in Wellington today (Tuesday 19th March 2019) to express their profound horror at the terrible violence towards Muslim people in Christchurch mosques last Friday. We are deeply saddened by these tragic events and ...

An Australian security expert says if New Zealand had stronger guns laws, Friday’s attack would not have been as devastating as it was. Director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute Border Security Programme, Dr John Coyne, says, “had the New ...

Solidarity for NZ: Trade unions around the world send messages The Public Service Association (PSA) has collated messages it has received from trade unions around the world, sending their condolences and solidarity in response to the Christchurch ...

Due to the tragic acts of violence against the Muslim community in Christchurch last Friday, the “Pacific People Say NO to the End Of Life Choice Bill” at Parliament scheduled for tomorrow Tuesday 19 March has been postponed. ...

The New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) welcomes the inquiry into the Christchurch terrorist attacks. “The Christchurch terrorist attacks are a horrific demonstration of violent extremism which has no place in New Zealand. NZSIS offers ...

“The attacks on Friday were an abhorrent challenge to everything that New Zealand holds dear. GCSB’s thoughts are with the families, friends and communities of the victims at this time,” said Andrew Hampton, Director-General of GCSB. ...

The National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of New Zealand, in condemning the recent massacre of innocent Muslims, calls on the people of Aotearoa to examine the destructive social forces that led to Friday's tragedy. “We extend our heartfelt ...

On behalf of all Grey Power Members and Associations I would like to extend our condolences and deepest sympathy’s to the victims and their families of the horrendous attacks that occurred in Christchurch this week. As New Zealanders we stand ...

Share this:

Related

Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Bi-partisan changes to gun laws announced, immigration minister urged to step in on visas of attack victim families, and stats lay bare Islamophobia in media.The first major law change since the ...

The former NZ PM says the global policy boss for the online behemoth has contacted her saying he wants to visit NZ, following an angry backlash against the platform over its livestream of a mass terrorist murder at a Christchurch ...

The Christchurch Mosque Shootings saw journalists scrambling the country over to cover the unfolding horror. New Zealand’s subreddit experienced an unprecedented rush too, swamping the volunteer moderators and exposing them to some of the worst reactions on Reddit. We speak ...

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra With the election likely to be called in about a fortnight – the weekend after the April 2 budget – behind the scenes Labor is ...

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Don Driscoll, Professor in Terrestrial Ecology, Deakin University The future management of New South Wales’s national parks is one of the issues on the line in Saturday’s state election. Other states will ...

KiwiSaver fund manager Milford Asset Management dumped its shareholdings in social media giant Facebook on Monday and joined the call from government-backed retirement fund managers for Facebook, Google and Twitter to take greater care monitoring content posted to social media ...

Farmers and investors will need to be patient with Fonterra Cooperative Group's overhaul of its business, which sometime-critic First NZ Capital analyst Arie Dekker says is moving in the right direction. ...

Armed police bedecked with flowers amid heightened national security following the Christchurch mosque attacks last Friday. Traditionazlly, New Zealand police are unarmed. Image: Sulzy/Twitter By RNZ News Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today announced a New Zealand ban on all ...

The government’s language so far is imprecise and it must word its ban carefully to stand up against a ferocious lobby from pro-gun groups.New Zealand lawmakers will need to write the law banning semi-automatic weapons so that it can’t be ...

Twenty years ago – before Instagram – a game about documenting your every move was released. That game was Pokémon Snap.The year was 1999. Hilary Swank was playing Brandon Teena, something that would now absolutely not be allowed. Troye Sivan was basically a fetus, ...

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dodd, Director of the Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of Melbourne When Judge Peter Kidd sentenced Cardinal George Pell last week, it was broadcast live on radio and television. It was ...

To mark the launch of the Helen Clark Foundation’s first report, its executive director Katherine Errington writes about New Zealand’s potential to become a ‘green’ hydrogen exporter.Much has been written about hydrogen of late, debating its place in the transition ...

Literal fake news is fuelling attempts to divide New Zealand’s religious communities, writes Aaron Hendry, an Auckland youth worker and Christian.In the wake of Friday’s horrific attack there is no doubt that New Zealand has changed. But perhaps one of ...

Political Roundup: Playing the Christchurch terrorism blame-game is dangerous by Dr Bryce Edwards Dr Bryce Edwards.Jacinda Ardern has led the way in how she’s responded to the Christchurch terrorist atrocity. The prime minister has emphasised the need to come ...

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Kotzmann, Lecturer in Law, Deakin University Your lipstick and foundation will be less likely to come at the expense of animal welfare, thanks to Commonwealth legislation that passed in recent weeks. ...

PGG Wrightson’s largest shareholder Alan Lai and his company Agria have been fined $220,000 and ordered to pay another $30,000 in costs by the High Court for breaching good character conditions imposed by the Overseas Investment Office. ...

The fifth work in Yona Lee’s In Transit series is currently exhibiting at Wellington’s City Gallery. Megan Dunn writes on the aspirations of the piece and how comfortably it sits in a gallery context.On a Sunday afternoon I opened my laptop and ...

New Zealand’s economy grew less than the central bank expected in the fourth quarter but economists don't expect the data to spur any change in the Reserve Bank's message at next week's policy review. ...

The sudden closure of Wellington’s Central Library was a shock to residents in the capital. Gem Wilder reflects on her love for the library and her hopes for its future.I received the news via the Wellington City Council twitter account, ...

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrea Rassell, Nanoartist and creative-practice based researcher in Media, RMIT University As an experimental video-maker working at scales smaller than molecules, I surround myself in a variety of scientific visualisations. In reading ...

How dare our national airline continue to brand itself with Indigenous symbols while rejecting employees who wear those same symbols on their bodies, writes Leonie Pihama.As I sit at a conference on the island of Maui, I see tā moko ...

The removal of extremist content alone isn’t going to solve the problem of right-wing terrorism. Instead, we need to harness new technology to find such individuals early and intervene.Last week, 50 lives in Christchurch were lost in another act of ...

The PM has confirmed an inquiry will be held into the circumstances leading up to the Christchurch terrorist attacks. Alex Braae asks they will have to look into.In the wake of the terrorist attack in Christchurch, questions are being raised ...

Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – March 21 2019Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage. The Beehive and Parliament Buildings.Today’s contentChristchurch mosque shootings ...

The pending announcement of the Sunwolves’ exit from Super Rugby points to a collective agreement from the SANZAAR unions that the Nations Championship is the future. However, trickle-down economics may be a hard sell for their constituents. The dollars are ...

This Race Relations Day, we call on all New Zealanders to take time out of their day to reflect. To stand united in mourning with victims of Christchurch, write Pancha Narayanan president of Multicultural New Zealand, and Paul Hunt, the chief ...